Profile
Every good product deserves its eternal salesperson.
The shelf is noisy and crowded. The shopper gives you three seconds. In self-service nobody stands next to the product to explain it. Either the pack sells, or nobody sells.
I am Hugo Zuffo, senior packaging designer, with more than 10 years in graphic design specialised in end-to-end packaging. I learn the product from the engineers or nutritionists who built it, I read the shelf as if it were a market report, and I turn attributes into honest reasons to buy. No decoration for the sake of aesthetics. Method and hierarchy. And craft, down to the last millimetre of the die-line. I am currently the packaging designer responsible for Deca (Dexco S.A.), one of Brazil’s leading bathroom brands, with more than 200 projects across five categories, and I design premium spirits packaging for American and European brands with Think Bold Studio (Portugal), in an entirely English-language workflow.
In 2026, the World Packaging Organisation jury named one of my projects the most effective marketing pack among all of the year's winners: the Special Award Marketing Gold, one of the three WorldStars my packaging took that year. A retailer put it better: she sold my product on video without ever opening the box.
Packaging is the product's salesperson. Beyond the design, I write its pitch.
In short
What does a packaging designer do, end to end?
Packaging end to end means the project neither starts at the layout nor ends at approval. It starts at the real shelf, reading the category the way you read a market report, and runs to the print-ready file. In between: learning the product from the people who built it, engineer or nutritionist; deciding the structure and the die-line before any artwork; building the visual system that scales to dozens of SKUs; closing print-ready artwork in AI and PDF X-1a; specifying finishes, approving the colour proof and following the print run. I also answer for compliance: ANVISA (Brazil's health regulator) and Inmetro in Brazil, PPWR in Europe. Much of the packaging I have designed is manufactured in China, so the cycle of specification, proofing and quality control happens at a distance and in English. It is that whole chain, not only the visible part, that decides whether the pack sells.
How I work
- I study until I become the reference. Immersion with the team responsible for development (nutrition or engineering) and with marketing before any layout. I leave the room knowing the product better than anyone who will design for it.
- The shelf first. Real shelf, real competitors: category research at the point of sale, decisions tested against the aisle. A shelf photo is worth more than a floating mockup.
- From briefing to print-ready artwork. End to end, with no loose handovers: strategy, scalable systems, print-ready artwork, regulatory QA, every validation and approval stage of the packaging system, 3D rendering.
- I teach what I do. Every project becomes a lesson. The method is open, because in packaging, as on the shelf, a claim needs proof.
Recognition
- WorldStar Special Award Marketing Gold, WPO 2026 · Verify →
- WorldStar Packaging Award, WPO 2026, Deca Food Waste Disposer · Verify →
- WorldStar Packaging Award, WPO 2026, Pérola · Verify →
- 2× Silver at the Prêmio ABRE 2025 · Bronze at the Brasil Design Award 2025 · Grandes Cases 2025 · Design for a Better World 2025. See all awards →
Outside the studio
I visit printers and suppliers, I research the shelf in person before any layout, and I work the industry fairs, including Interpack in Düsseldorf, the largest packaging fair in the world. Outside work I sing in a rock band: four people, a live audience, everything in sync under pressure. It is the same job as a shelf, really: three seconds to win the room.
Career path
Deca (Dexco S.A.) since 2023, and Think Bold Studio, in Portugal, since 2024. Before that, Nestlé Puravida, doTERRA International and Pearson Latam. Every company, with the job title, the period and what came out of it, is on the experience page.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask before getting in touch.
Do you take roles outside Brazil?
Yes. I am open to international relocation and to remote roles in the European Union and the United States. English is already my daily working language: I design premium spirits packaging for American and European brands with Think Bold Studio, of Portugal, in an entirely English-language workflow.
Do you know packaging regulation?
On both sides. In Brazil, ANVISA (Brazil's health regulator) and Inmetro: I restructured more than 150 SKUs of the Nestlé Puravida line, from Nestlé Health Science, for the 2023 ANVISA rules. In Europe, I follow the PPWR, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, which starts to apply in August 2026.
Do you deliver print-ready artwork, or only concept?
I deliver it. The file leaves here ready for the printer, in AI and PDF X-1a, with a colour proof, finish specification and a checked barcode. Offset, flexography and screen printing; hot stamping, embossing, spot varnish and soft-touch. No step between the brief and the print file is outsourced.
Do you work with Asian manufacturing?
Yes. Much of the packaging I have designed is manufactured in China. In practice that means specifying for a supplier I cannot visit, approving proofs at a distance, settling material discrepancies in writing and running quality control in English, with the time zone against me. It is routine, not the exception.